Pistons < Spurs
03-23-2010, 06:13 PM
Autistic Teen Picks First Two NCAA Rounds Perfectly
An autistic teenager from the Chicago area has done something almost impossible.
Nearly 48 games into an upset-filled NCAA tournament, 17-year-old Alex Herrmann is perfect.
"It's amazing," he says. Truly.
The teenager predicted that Northern Iowa would beat the Kansas Jayhawks. He picked Ohio to knock off Georgetown. And Cornell to knock off Wisconsin.
In fact, he picked every game through the first two rounds correctly. The odds of anybody doing that? One in 13,460,000, according to BookofOdds.com. It's easier to win the lottery. Twice.
"I'm good at math," Alex, a Glenbrook South High School student, said. "I'm kind of good at math and at stats I see on TV during the game."
Alex entered the bracket on CBSsports.com's bracket challenge. His 24-year-old brother Andrew, who helped him enter his picks into CBS' bracket manager, also entered the contest -- and ranks behind 500,000 other people.
“My bracket is totally shot,” hist 24-year-old brother Andrew said. “So is everyone else I know.”
ESPN estimates around 4.78 million played in their bracket challenge, but no one picked all the games correctly. The leader at ESPN’s bracket has already missed four games.
But Alex Hermann's miraculous bracket is still a picture of perfection.
Andrew is still shocked --- after looking it over for the umpteenth time, he told his mother to alert the media.
"I checked his bracket and it was off the chart," Andrew said. "I thought it was big deal."
Alex doesn't get anything for perfection. He entered one of three bracket games offered by CBS -- the only one without a prize attached.
Alex’s basketball knowledge could have been worth a fortune. One of the other CBS games offers a prize of $5,000 per round. Other sites offer even more money -- Yahoo offers $1 million for a perfect bracket; SportsBook.com offers $13 million.
“If he would have won any money he would have just saved it,” his mother Diane said. "He's a big saver."
Of course, everyone wants to know Alex’s secret. He says there's none.
"I watched each team this year and saw the size of the player and looked at the stats," Alex said.
There are still four rounds remaining, so it could fall apart -- the odds of a perfect wire to wire bracket is about 1 in 35,360,000 by some measures or 1 in 1,000,000,000,000 by others.
Alex picked Purdue to win the whole thing. That just happens to be his brother’s alma mater.
“They’re his favorite for that reason,” Diane said. Or maybe he knows something no one else does.
CBS did not return several phone calls to confirm Alex's entry -- and the software does allow changes after the tournament begins. But the Hermann's insisted that they filled out their brackets as a family before the tournament started, and haven't touched the picks since.
Click here (http://media.nbcchicago.com/images/WinningBracket.jpg)to see Alex's entire bracket.
Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/sports/Autistic-Teen-Picks-First-Two-NCAA-Rounds-Perfectly-88916437.html#ixzz0j2oNVgbK
An autistic teenager from the Chicago area has done something almost impossible.
Nearly 48 games into an upset-filled NCAA tournament, 17-year-old Alex Herrmann is perfect.
"It's amazing," he says. Truly.
The teenager predicted that Northern Iowa would beat the Kansas Jayhawks. He picked Ohio to knock off Georgetown. And Cornell to knock off Wisconsin.
In fact, he picked every game through the first two rounds correctly. The odds of anybody doing that? One in 13,460,000, according to BookofOdds.com. It's easier to win the lottery. Twice.
"I'm good at math," Alex, a Glenbrook South High School student, said. "I'm kind of good at math and at stats I see on TV during the game."
Alex entered the bracket on CBSsports.com's bracket challenge. His 24-year-old brother Andrew, who helped him enter his picks into CBS' bracket manager, also entered the contest -- and ranks behind 500,000 other people.
“My bracket is totally shot,” hist 24-year-old brother Andrew said. “So is everyone else I know.”
ESPN estimates around 4.78 million played in their bracket challenge, but no one picked all the games correctly. The leader at ESPN’s bracket has already missed four games.
But Alex Hermann's miraculous bracket is still a picture of perfection.
Andrew is still shocked --- after looking it over for the umpteenth time, he told his mother to alert the media.
"I checked his bracket and it was off the chart," Andrew said. "I thought it was big deal."
Alex doesn't get anything for perfection. He entered one of three bracket games offered by CBS -- the only one without a prize attached.
Alex’s basketball knowledge could have been worth a fortune. One of the other CBS games offers a prize of $5,000 per round. Other sites offer even more money -- Yahoo offers $1 million for a perfect bracket; SportsBook.com offers $13 million.
“If he would have won any money he would have just saved it,” his mother Diane said. "He's a big saver."
Of course, everyone wants to know Alex’s secret. He says there's none.
"I watched each team this year and saw the size of the player and looked at the stats," Alex said.
There are still four rounds remaining, so it could fall apart -- the odds of a perfect wire to wire bracket is about 1 in 35,360,000 by some measures or 1 in 1,000,000,000,000 by others.
Alex picked Purdue to win the whole thing. That just happens to be his brother’s alma mater.
“They’re his favorite for that reason,” Diane said. Or maybe he knows something no one else does.
CBS did not return several phone calls to confirm Alex's entry -- and the software does allow changes after the tournament begins. But the Hermann's insisted that they filled out their brackets as a family before the tournament started, and haven't touched the picks since.
Click here (http://media.nbcchicago.com/images/WinningBracket.jpg)to see Alex's entire bracket.
Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/sports/Autistic-Teen-Picks-First-Two-NCAA-Rounds-Perfectly-88916437.html#ixzz0j2oNVgbK